


I've Come So Many Miles

by geckoholic



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Character Study, Galra Empire, Gen, Imagined Backstory, Light Angst, Missing Scene, POV Female Character, Season/Series 06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 13:28:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15268488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geckoholic/pseuds/geckoholic
Summary: Krolia never thought she'd become a mother.





	I've Come So Many Miles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lunarium](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/gifts).



> The prompts I went with were speculation about Krolia's reasons to join the Blades, and something about the last moments she shares with Keith before she leaves him behind as a means of protecting him.
> 
> Not beta-read, so all remaining mistakes are most definitively mine.
> 
> Title is from "Darling" by Needtobreathe.

Krolia never thought she'd become a mother. It's not like she disliked the idea of having children, as such. She hated the idea of giving them over to the empire to be used as mindless soldiers, indoctrinated into the brutal cult that Zarkon made of their kind, taught that the only real honor lies in conquering more and more planets and ruling supreme over their ashes. Under his reign the entire empire became a strung-out junkie, always aching for more quintessence. Everything is a means to that end. 

The youngest daughter of a general, trained and shaped to be a great warrior herself, Krolia made a promise to herself way before she even reached her first quarter century. No quintessence, not for her. Her father had been nearly four millennia old when she was born, and he was nearly mad – cruelty his only entertainment, war his only constant. She'd looked at him with disgust and trepidation, and like countless children on and infinite number of worlds, she vowed that her life would be different than the ones of those that came before her. Shorter. More meaningful. Aimed towards change. 

The Blades were a whisper at first. A rumor. A story that couldn't possible hold an ounce of truth. They might still be a stillborn revolution, never enough in numbers to have a real effect, and yet, for the first time in her life Krolia _believes_ in something. She lives in constant danger, yet doesn't fear neither pain nor death. Her short, natural window of existence might at least pave the way for future generations. 

Now she sits in a rickety wooden chair in a small farm house on a planet lucky enough to have stayed out of the empire's extension plans, and she holds her son in her arms, and fears for his well-being and survival like she never did for her own. Her life is larger than herself now, in a very real way, and the idea of those future generations ceased to be abstract. The idea of leaving him behind, not seeing him grow up, makes a pain spread in her chest that his bigger than anything physical. And yet that's what she must do, so he can survive. So he can be safe. Happy. Carefree, unaware of the war that his mother's kind wages across the galaxy. Keith gurgles happily as she rocks him back and forth, the chair creaking underneath her, and her heart nearly breaks in two. Still, she smiles at him. His bright, round eyes drink her in, and he giggles, a noise that communicates pure delight. She doesn't know what to wish for; that he'll somehow retain the memories of this moment, remember her, miss her, or that he'll have no recollection of her whatsoever. Maybe the latter – she doesn't want to hurt him, be a thorn in his side, a missing piece he could never regain. 

She rises to her feet and carries him over to the bed to join his father. She places Keith safely in his arms, then lies down to curl around the baby from the other side. Come morning, Krolia is going to give up the only happiness she ever knew. But tonight, their son will sleep here with them, sheltered between both his parents one last time.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](http://lostemotion.tumblr.com) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/spacenerdz).


End file.
